Process of producing alloys.



ISADOR LADOFF, F WILKINSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF THIRTY ONE-HUNDREDTHS TO WALTER D. EDMQNDS, 0F BOONVIIQLE, NEW YORK.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING ALLOYS.

No Drawing.

To all uihom it may concern:

zen of the United States, residing at Wilkinsburg, in the county ofAllegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and usefulImprovements in Processes of Producing Alloys, of which the following isa specification.

- My present invention relates to those processes of producing alloys byreduction of metallic oxids at temperatures sufliciently high to reducesuch oxids without melting the resulting metals for which Letters Patentof the United States No. 1,040,699 were granted to me on October 8,1912, and Letters Patent No. 1,0125% on October 29, 1912.

' The objects of my present invention comprise provision of expedientswhereby as regards peculiarly refractory, or so to speak,-

more or lessunmiscible, metals at the said temperatures may becaused toalloy as readily and perfectly as other metals. I have found that somefew metals which are desirable in alloys for certain uses, such, forexample, as uranium in alloy with ferrometal for tool steels, prove, inoperations conducted as per my said. patents, practically unmiscible, orunalloyable with the ferro-metal, and that some other metals likewisedesirable prove not as comprehensively -miscible, or alloyable, as is,if only for economic reasons, desirable.

. I have discovered, however, that if there be added to the chargeduring the operation a relatively unimportant, usually quite small,quantity of a compound, as for example the oxid of an element other thanthose intended to compose the alloy product, and the operation beotherwise conducted asper the specifications and certain of the claimsof my said patents, as for example claims 1, 3, :4, 6, 8, 10, etc., ofPatent No. 1,040,699, the oxids yield readily and to full extent desiredtheir metallic constituents and in readily, homogeneously, andcomprehensively alloying, or miscible, state, the resulting alloysbeingthus rendered more certain I as to desired relative proportions of theirconstituents, and also caused to contain such percentages as desired ofsuch hitherto especially refractory or unreadily miscible elements Myinvention is practised by first assembling, preferably in' intimatemixture, the

Specification of Letters Patent. 0

- lurgical art.

Patented Apr. 10, 1917.

Application filed October 12, 1915. Serial No. 55,418.

oxids of the metals in proportions calculated metals desired in thealloy. I incorporate, with this mixture, an auxiliary, to wit, anothersubstance, the presence of which, during the operation, has, .by mytests, been demonstrated to increase the percentage of properly alloyeddiflicultly miscible metal in the final product.

"The charge is then subjected in presence of a reducing agent, totemperature below the melting points of said metals until the desiredalloy has been produced.

My researches indicate that the additional or auxiliary substanceincorporated in the charge as, and for, the purpose aforesaid,should'preferably be an oxid, the reduction temperature of which islower than that of the oxid of the more d-ifficultly reducible andmiscible of the to be alloyed metals, and also that it is preferablethat the melting point of the element combined with .oxygen in the oxidof the auxiliary substance should be lower than that of such difficultymiscible metal. I

Said substance may be either a mineral, or usually preferably, ametallic compound. For example, I have found that arsenic trioxid (As Ois thus very eflicient as an added sub-stance in the making, by my saidprocess, of alloys of ferro-metals, or ofcopper, with such improving,but diflicultly miscible metals as vanadium, or u'ranium; also that thesame is true of antimony trioxid (810 0,), and of the oxids of cobaltand nickel. 7

The proportion of the auxiliary substance added will, of course, dependupon the special requirements of each operation, and can, by usualtests; and experimentation, be readily determined by those skilled inthe metal- The amount required is, for example, determinable bycomparison of the quantity of the oxid of the relatively unmisciblemetal used, with the percentage of such metal in the alloy, and thepercentage of the auxiliary substance employed. The

I the auxiliary substance-to be added will, in

some'cases, be quite small. For example, in

. from the such, for example, as by, after its production the productionof what are known as tool steel alloys, 71. e., those in which suchmetals as vanadium or uranium are alloyed with the steel, the percentageof the oxids of such I metals, in the charge, and of such metals in thealloy, is usually small compared to that of the ferro-metals, andconsequently a correspondingly small addition of the auxiliary substanceis required, say in many such cases not to exceed five per centum of thecharge. The residuum, if any, in thealloy of such small additions mayusually be treated as negligible, or even as useful, as when oxids ofmetals are employed; but, in othercases, the auxiliary may be, ifdesired, eliminated alloy by well known procedures,

by my method, raising the temperature of the alloy sufliciently to oftherein remaining small quantities of arsemc.

Having now described my invention, what claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is the following, viz:

1. The method of producing an alloy "which comprises mixing the oxids ofits constituent metals, incorporating with the mixture a compound theoxids,- and subjecting the charge, in a reducinsure elimination 4reducing temperature of whlch is lower than that of one of said.

ing atmosphere, to temperature below the melting points of said-metalsbut sufliciently high to inaugurate, and maintaining such temperaturesufficiently long to insure, reduction of said oxids. v

2. The method of, producing an alloy which comprises mixing the oxids ofits const-ituent metals, incorporating with the mix ture another oxygencompound the reducing temperature of which is lower than that of one ofsaid oxids, and subjecting the charge,

in a reducing atmosphere,i'to temperature 5 said oxids.

. ISADOR LADQFE. Witnesses: WM. HAGUE,

WEINMAN CRATTY'.

